NRC Route
NRC Route is a feature of the Nike Run Club application. The feature displays the user’s running route as a 3D topographical map viewed in AR when the run’s summary screen is viewed with a phone’s camera. The AR Route feature aims to make running more exciting by encouraging runners to try new routes. The Route feature allows a 3D run summary to be shared with family and friends and strengthens the NRC community.
Case Study
Duration:
October 2020 - December 2020
Tools:
• Figma
• Unity
Explore rewards mechanisms and gamification
PROJECT BRIEF
NRC Route started as a passion project based on my personal running experiences. Like most of us, I made a New Year's resolution to run more, however, I couldn’t stick to it mainly due to a lack of motivation. When I would run, I would take a familiar path in Central Park and would always take the same route. After a while, running became monotonous and not fun. I noticed a lack of gamification and reward mechanisms in the most popular running apps. They offer a generic stats screen and help you connect with different runners but they fail to encourage people to try new and challenging routes, particularly routes including elevation changes.
The focus of this project is to encourage engagement in the NRC app community and attract new runners to the app by introducing a unique reward mechanism.
Metric centric nature of the app can be discouraging for beginner runners
PROBLEM STATEMENT
NRC is very metric and performance-oriented which puts a lot of people off the community by intimidating new runners. You are less likely to share your run when you’re a beginner and think your 1-mile run is nothing impressive. I explored, how might we bring in new perspectives to peoples’ runs, motivate new runners to go the distance, and create a novel reward mechanism for runners of every level.
Current run summary sharing
on social media
A fun alternative!
Encourage beginner runners and increase their
long-term engagement
HYPOTHESES
- More runners share their routes on social media
- It motivates runners to go the distance and take on challenges
- Provide a unique way of sharing your run that is not metrics focused
- Encourages runners to try new routes on their own
- Introduce a novel experience that’s more engaging for runners
- Delighting and surprising the user
- Help users to remember their run history through memorable maps
- People participate in more guided routes to collect rewards
- Offers new perspectives to contextualize running route
- Each 3D route acts as a memory globe
+30 applications. Unique features seem increasingly important to differentiate from the competition.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET
There are over 30+ running applications available in the app stores. There seems to be a profound difference in a person’s motivation to run if they are tracking their stats. Before GPS availability, treadmills paved the way for stats-focused running, where they enable runners to track their improvement. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic with the gyms having been shut down, running applications have become ever so popular.
Most of these applications track the location, distance, running speed, elevation, and calories burnt. Some other applications, with the aid of wearables, can track heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels. With so many of these run-tracking applications on the market, unique features seem increasingly important to differentiate from the competition, especially for beginner runners.
NRC is the leading run-tracking app, with over 100M members
ABOUT NIKE RUN CLUB
The Nike Run Club app uses GPS to track your run, providing statistical data at the end of each run. NRC offers extensive audio content for guided runs for every level of runners. The community in Nike Run Club is highly emphasized, it allows you to connect with friends, creates leaderboards and challenges along with suggesting local running events.
Having tried other tracking apps such as Strava, Map My Run, Puma, and Runtastic, Nike Run Club stood out to me with its design and simplicity. The Nike Run Club app also approaches exercising in more unique ways compared to the other apps by including elements of gamification to promote user retention while making training enjoyable.
Through its innovative approach to designing a tracking app, I see an opportunity to take the gamification elements to the next level by introducing collectibles including trophies and generated routes.
Runners can be grouped into 3 main categories based on their engagement
USER RESEARCH
I started off by conducting an interview with the runners who use tracking applications. After talking with 14 runners, I was able to group them into 3 main categories in terms of their level. This also helped me to understand the features each level of runner uses the most.
Beginners - individuals who are new to running. They are eager to learn and seek motivational content in the apps they use. They get the most value out of guided runs. Reward mechanisms and statistics provide motivation.
Casual Runners - users who are using the app to maintain a healthy lifestyle, some target weight loss and focus on their overall fitness improvement. They also like to socialize with other runners.
Regular Runners - individuals who are following a strict regimen to improve their endurance, constantly push their limits, highly focused on their statistics.
Main Findings
People stop using tracking features after getting comfortable and repetitive with their running route.
Long-term retention decreases amongst casual runners.
Community engagement is poorly organized. It is difficult to share with friends both in and outside the application.
User experience gets monotonous, resulting in losing interest in using the app.
Guided runs and motivational content fails to integrate with running stats.
People want to have flexibility in viewing their metrics
Opportunities
Suggest new running routes to users based on location.
Integrate stats with the physical surrounding and weather conditions.
Implement hidden AR gems on the Route, and add excitement to the running routine.
Provide a tangible way of viewing the route and make it more memorable.
Suggest friends based on location and experience level.
Introduced customized 3D Route displays based on Urban vs. Non-urban settings.
IDEATION
Information architecture
I aimed to incorporate the Route to the existing Nike Run Club application seamlessly. The added features are; Local Routes, Trophies, AR Route, Guided Routes, and AR Route Challenges.
The Route features help the running experience to be conscious of the running location and space. Guided Routes incorporates the topography and the difficulties on the Route with the voice recordings that are prepared by the instructors.
IDEATION
How does it work?
USER JOURNEY
Apple Watch owners can view their routes in AR
To view the AR Route display, the user is attracted by a call-to-action button “AR Route” placed on the Activity page. The AR Route button activates the camera and simultaneously synchronizes the NRC app with the Apple Watch app.
“Scan Apple Watch” instruction appears on the camera screen until the Route map on the Apple Watch is scanned. On scanning the map, the AR Route map is displayed on the phone’s screen.
PROTOTYPING
Immersive experience
The route displays are aimed to be customized according to runners’ priorities. For metrics-driven runners, the route is visualized with high accuracy, and the running statistics are highlighted on the display.
PROTOTYPING
Different routes, different styles
For users who prefer to be a little over the edge, there is a dramatic route display. This display prioritizes the experience over running statistics. It creates a compelling view of the runner’s accomplishment and a pretty picture to share with friends.
